Technology, Governance and Intellectual Property Law Group (TGIPG)

About us

The Technology, Governance and IP Law Group (TGIPG) provides a central point for the School of Law’s outstanding research and teaching in Intellectual Property and Cyber Law and areas related to information and emerging technologies. It also advances the aims of CBLP’s research theme of Information Technologies Regulation. 

TGIPG brings together a growing number of scholars specialising or engaging with the impact of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain-based technologies (Metaverse, NFTs, Cryptocurrencies, Web3, etc.), gene-editing and related disruptive technologies upon Intellectual Property and IT. 

By consolidating a diverse range of disciplinary expertise and approaches, the TGIPG Group reflects its commitment to engaging within, across, and beyond the traditional confines of IP regulation and policy. 

Our membership is drawn from all four of the School’s Research Centres (Centre for Business Law and Practice, Centre for Law and Social Justice, Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, and Centre for Innovation in Legal Research), and we embrace inter-disciplinary dialogue with fields including life sciences, business regulation, the arts, and data protection. 

Our research seeks to address the challenges of technological disruptions on law, regulation, justice and related institutions and disciplines, from the way new digital technologies are challenging traditional IP law to the even greater challenges that AI and Internet regulation pose.  

Our research extends from the IP impact upon access to information and medicines, to the justice and rights of indigenous and disadvantaged groups, from agricultural foodstuffs and traditional knowledge to new digital platforms spurred by Blockchain-based technologies and the Metaverse. 

Our research activities

We advance research and teaching on IP and information technologies by:  

• promoting a supportive environment in which IP and technology regulation colleagues within the School (including PGRs and ECRs) can develop ideas, pitch projects, and gain constructive feedback from each other; 

• extending connections across the School’s research centres and across other departments of the University (such Leeds University Business School, Schools of Design, Medicine, Engineering, Biology, etc.) in order to develop and conduct ambitious, inter-disciplinary research projects. 

• providing a pool of expertise that other colleagues can draw upon if, for example, they are not IP/emerging technologies researchers but wish to use a technological regulation approach in a piece of work; 

• increasing the external visibility of our collective expertise in law and disruptive emerging technologies. 

Our LLM programme

The TGIPG’s research is closely linked with its delivery of research-led teaching on the School’s Intellectual Property Law LLM Programme which attracts UK, European and international students from across the world and from legal and science backgrounds. Our IP LLM Programme is well-established (nearly two decades old) and hugely successful with a long-standing international reputation. The IP LLM’s global reputation for excellence in teaching has enabled it to be part of the Pan-European Seal Programme, which enables our IP LLM graduates to apply for a fully-paid one year traineeship at the European Patent Office or the European Intellectual Property Office.

Our experts

• Amaka Vanni (International Economic Law; Intellectual Property Law; Law and Development; Global Governance)
• Ioanna Lapatoura (Intellectual property; Copyright; Trade marks; Designs; IT law; Technology Law; AI; Creative industries; Online platforms)
• Andrea Zappalaglio (Trade Marks, Unfair Competition Law, IP and Sustainability, Greenwashing, and History of Intellectual Property.
• Igor Szpotakowski (Intellectual Property Law; Law and Technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) Regulation; Data Protection; Comparative Law; Private Law; Chinese Law; Roman Law)
• Graham Dutfield (Intellectual property; trade & sustainable development; health; law & regulation of food, agriculture & gene technology innovation; traditional knowledge & cultures; bioprospecting; Indigenous Peoples)
• Subhajit Basu (Law and Technology, Regulation of Emerging technologies, Cyberspace, AI, Big Data, Health data, Autonomous systems; Online Harm; Data protection; Privacy)
• Kinfe Yilma (law and technology; privacy and data protection law; AI governance; platform governance; cybersecurity law)
• Rebecca Moosavian (Article 8 ECHR privacy right; Article 10 ECHR free expression right; misuse of private information; image rights; copyright; prerogative power; judicial review; Iraq war; critical legal theories)
• Cesar Ramirez-Montes (Intellectual Property Law and Technology Regulation, Human Rights, Digital Platforms, Competition Law, Copyright and Disability Rights, Brands and Freedom of Expression, Emerging Technologies, Data Protection, AI-impact on IP, Global South)

Our postgraduate researchers 

The TGIPG also supports our students in conducting original and critical research in their chosen area of IP and Technology law.

• Maria Anda-Busuioc (Platform monetasiation of user-generated content under the supervision of Amaka Vani and Cesar Ramirez-Montes)
• Daniel Hinchcliff (Music AI, under the supervision of Graham Dutfield and Cesar Ramirez-Montes
• Christopher Robinson (Copyright and AI under the supervision of Subhajit Basu and Rebecca Moosavia)
• Norah Aldashash
• Arianne Cooper
• Anton Samudra

Studying/researching with us

The TGIPG is keen to support and supervise LLM/PhD research projects in any IP and Technology-related areas. It also welcomes postdoctoral and visiting scholars in any of these areas. Do please contact any member of the TGIPG if you are considering the start of your adventure towards, or the consolidation of, a career in research.

Please contact the group’s founder and co-lead, if you require further information about this group: c.j.ramirez-montes@leeds.ac.uk.

Main image is by metamorworks from Getty Images Pro.